Your enemy is restless. He never sleeps. He is always going about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet. 5:8). He is ever going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it (Job 1:7). You may be careless about your souls: he is not. He wants them to make them miserable, like himself, and will have them if he can. Surely his enmity is not to be despised?

The censures of the church, are appointed by Christ, for the preventing and removing, and healing of offences in the church:

for the reclaiming and gaining of offending brethren; for the deterring others from the like offenses; for purging out the leaven which may infect the whole lump; for vindicating the honour of Christ, and of his Church, and the holy profession of the gospel; and for preventing the wrath of God, that may justly fall upon the church, if they should suffer his covenant, and the seals thereof, to be profaned by notorious and obstinate offenders.

“Whitefield wrote no book for the million, of world-wide fame, like Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. He headed no crusade against an apostate Church, with a nation at his back, and princes on his side, like Martin Luther. He founded no religious denomination, which pinned its faith on his writings and carefully embalmed his best acts and words, like John Wesley. There are Lutherans and Wesleyans in the present day, but there are no Whitefieldites. No! The great evangelist of the 18th century was a simple, guileless man, who lived for one thing only, and that was to preach Christ. If he did that, he cared for northing else.”

“False doctrine and heresy are even worse than schism. If people separate themselves from teaching which is positively false and unscriptural, they ought to be praised rather than reproved. In such cases separation is a virtue and not a sin… there is one thing which is even worse than controversy, and that is false doctrine, allowed, and permitted without protest or molestation.”

“When we discover that our idols have feet of clay our distaste for them is usually in direct proportion to our earlier devotion to them; it tends to be as wholehearted as was the pursuit and the short-lived pleasure.”

“Cling to the truth, pure and simple – to the truth, and not to mere feelings, impressions, sentiments; to the truth, and not to tampering with falsehood; to the truth: it is heaven-born; to the truth: it is from God, and he knows best what we should believe and what do… to the truth: it is sure to bring the rich blessings of its Author.”